New to chickens, some egg & hatching advice needed!

[tuesdaylove]

I kind of feel dumb for having to ask about this; I feel like the only person here who doesn't already know all this stuff! Anyway, my flock is a little over four months now and the hens will likely start laying soon. With my current situation, there's some things I'm wondering about and I would love some answers.

My flock includes four hens and two roosters. I actually have a fifth hen, but she has not met the rest of the flock yet and is separate due to bumblefoot, and I will introduce her to the others later. All of my chickens are bantams except for the hen I just mentioned and another hen. Since I live in the city limits, close to a highway and with predators in the woods nearby, my chickens do not free-range, and are in a pen connected to the backyard. The pen is split into two sections so that I can separate chickens if necessary.

I've had a few plans to separate my chickens. One plan was to keep my favorite roo in one half with the bantam hens, and the other (and much more aggressive) roo in the other half with the standard hens. The positive here is that I would always know the father of the baby chickens, however, there would be a huge problem when the baby hens grew up and the roos mated their daughters.

So my new plan is to keep all of the hens in one half, and the roos in another. Unless the roos begin to fight, this should work out fine. The roos have fought a couple of times, nothing too bloody. They were raised together and I'm hoping that one will just become dominant and that's that. If not, I have a friend who can take one roo. This way, I'll get to control who the parents of each baby chick are, and we won't have the problem of linebreeding.

Right now, all of the chickens are running around together (except for the bumblefooted hen). I've noticed the aggressive roo mating the hens like crazy, and they're at laying age, and will likely lay their first eggs soon. This is where I get to the point.

I've never had any experience with chicken eggs, hatching, incubating, etc. So I have some questions:

• If the roos mate the hens every day, and if each hen lays one egg every day, will they all be fertilized? How can I hatch out a group of baby chicks like you all do if there's one fertile egg laid every day?
• How can I tell if a hen is broody and how can I make her go broody if fertile eggs are laid that I want her to sit on?
• I've heard of something called "candeling eggs." If I were to candle the eggs, what would I be looking for that tells me if it is a fertile or non-fertile egg?
• I really want to control my chickens' breeding, so if I take one roo and one hen and breed them, how many days in a row can I do this and still have all the eggs hatch out at one time? Like, if there are three eggs laid over three days, and as soon as the third one is laid, I start to incubate it, will they all hatch together?
• What are the pros and cons of letting the hen incubate the eggs versus incubating them myself with an incubator?
• How common is it that something goes wrong during a hen laying an egg or during an egg hatching? If something were to happen in either case, what should I do?
• Will roosters hurt baby chicks?
• Is there really a way to tell the gender of a newborn chick? If my plan of separating the roos and hens goes well, I plan to keep most of the baby hens, but I can't have any more roos, so I need to know the genders young, so I can re-home the roos.

 

[Ridgerunner]

First and foremost, never be afraid to ask a question on here. We all have to start somewhere and trust me, there are people on the forum that know less than you. I’ve been here a while and I’m still learning stuff.

•If the roos mate the hens every day, and if each hen lays one egg every day, will they all be fertilized? How can I hatch out a group of baby chicks like you all do if there's one fertile egg laid every day?

A hen can stay fertile for quite a while after a mating. It varies some, but in general a hen will lay fertile eggs between 9 days to three weeks after a mating. Most people use two weeks as a good time for the eggs to still be fertile.

You can store eggs for a while before you start them and you need to start them all at the same time so they will all hatch at the same time. Otherwise it gets really complicated. How long you can store them and them not lose hatchability depends on how you store them. This article gives good information about storing the eggs for hatching. http://gallus.tamu.edu/library/extpublications/b6092.pdf Don’t freak out if you can’t follow the recommendations exactly. Few of us do. Just do the best you reasonably can and you should do well.

•How can I tell if a hen is broody and how can I make her go broody if fertile eggs are laid that I want her to sit on?

A broody has certain characteristics. She spends most of her time on the nest. She will probably puff up and growl at you if you reach into her nest or maybe even just get close. She makes a certain "pucking” sound whenever she is off the nest. But some hens do all this and are not broody. The test for me before I give her eggs is that she needs to spend two consecutive nights on the nest instead of on the roost.

You will read many things about how to make a hen go broody. Maybe some of them will help influence one to go broody if she is inclined that way already, but you cannot force one. Don’t count on getting a broody if you are determined to hatch eggs. They are really undependable about going broody. An incubator is all you can count on.


•I've heard of something called "candeling eggs." If I were to candle the eggs, what would I be looking for that tells me if it is a fertile or non-fertile egg?

You cannot tell if eggs are fertile by candling. Candling enables you to watch the chick develop and see if the chick is developing after several days in the incubator or under a broody. Other than incubating, the only feasible way for us to check if an egg is fertile is to break it open and look for the bull’s eye. If one is fertile, the ones you don’t break open probably are. This link has pictures of what to look for. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=16008&p=6

•I really want to control my chickens' breeding, so if I take one roo and one hen and breed them, how many days in a row can I do this and still have all the eggs hatch out at one time? Like, if there are three eggs laid over three days, and as soon as the third one is laid, I start to incubate it, will they all hatch together?

That’s covered above, but yes, you need to collect all you want to hatch and start them at the same time.


•What are the pros and cons of letting the hen incubate the eggs versus incubating them myself with an incubator?

This could take a book to answer and we do things different ways for different reasons. To me, the biggest advantage of an incubator is that you control the timing. The biggest advantage of a hen doing the incubating is that it is more convenient for you during incubation, but the big benefit is that she will raise them and handle basic integration so you don’t need a brooder.

•How common is it that something goes wrong during a hen laying an egg or during an egg hatching? If something were to happen in either case, what should I do?


Again that is too broad a question to answer. You are dealing with living animals. Things happen. H9w common is either? On an individual basis, not all that common. But when you get a group together, it becomes more common. There are a lot of different things that can happen, too many to go into here. Just keep reading the forum and you’ll pick up a lot of information. If you have a specific problem, ask about it and you will probably get some help.

•Will roosters hurt baby chicks?

You are dealing with living animals so anything can happen. In my experience, a good rooster takes care of all members of his flock. Not all roosters are good, though. I’ve had several experiences where a broody gets separated from some of her chicks and the dominant rooster stops what he is doing to go take care of the baby chicks until Mama can get her act together. Not all my dominant roosters do that but I’ve seen it several times. Your biggest danger is from the other hens or any non-dominant roosters in with them. Then, Mama usually does such a good job of protecting her chicks and has such a bad attitude when something threatens them that most of them learn pretty quickly to leave those chicks alone. Most do, but not all broodies do that real well. Most hens and most roosters, dominant or not, will not go out of their way to harm a baby chick, but some will. Most hens will peck a chick that is separated from Mama if it wanders into her personal space, so you need Mama around to protect the chick.

•Is there really a way to tell the gender of a newborn chick? If my plan of separating the roos and hens goes well, I plan to keep most of the baby hens, but I can't have any more roos, so I need to know the genders young, so I can re-home the roos.

There are some possibilities depending on colors and patterns, but in general, no there is not a good way until they grow enough to see the difference.